


Family Dinner

by sorteparaplyer



Series: Kinkmeme Fills [3]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Food Issues, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Drug Addiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-23
Updated: 2019-03-23
Packaged: 2019-11-28 18:01:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,305
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18211694
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sorteparaplyer/pseuds/sorteparaplyer
Summary: Klaus is hungry and not really in the mood for the niceties of family dinner





	Family Dinner

**Author's Note:**

> This is a fill for an [umbrellakink](https://umbrellakink.dreamwidth.org/) prompt made [here](https://umbrellakink.dreamwidth.org/284.html?thread=141596#cmt141596)

Klaus sits at the table, shooting expectant looks around at his siblings. None of them seem as irritated as he is. But then again they probably all ate lunch. And breakfast for that matter. 

Oh, Klaus did have breakfast, he remembers. There was a bagel that seemed mostly fine even though he found it in a dumpster.

No, wait, that was yesterday.

“I’m starving, guys, do we really have to sit here and just stare at each other until Five decides he’s ready to grace us with his presence?”

“Mom wants us to eat together as a family.” Luther’s voice is stern, authoritative. It grates on Klaus’ already-fraying nerves.

“Why?” Klaus asks. “Because there was so much _togetherness_ at the dinner table when we were kids?”

“Because Dad’s gone,” Diego says. “Mom can do things her way now. And she wants to give us a nice family dinner.”

“Well, isn’t that sweet,” Klaus grouses. Any other time he would feel for her, understand what it means to his mom to be able to salvage her family from Reginald’s wreckage. But right now he’s hungry and his head hurts and he’s starting to feel just a little cranky.

Vanya’s watching him with a nervous pinch in her expression. “Mom and Allison are still finishing up in the kitchen,” she says. “Five will be here any minute, probably before dinner’s even ready.” 

“Oh in that case maybe I’d better just go and see if they need any more help.” Klaus pushes himself up from the table. He must move too quickly because he gets a surge of vertigo that momentarily makes the room spin.

“ _Sit_ , Klaus.” 

He drops back into his chair, not because Luther told him too, but also definitely not because he feels so dizzy. He must just be a little tired. It’s been a long day after all.

“You’d only get in their way and mess everything up.”

“Shut up, Luther.” Klaus would give him a smarter remark but sometimes the asshole just isn’t worth the effort. _Definitely_ not worth the effort after such a long day.

“I’ll go see if they need help.” Diego gets up and disappears into the kitchen. Then Klaus only has Luther and Vanya to stare between. And Ben, but Ben’s giving him such a stupid pitying look that Klaus refuses to look at him.

Five shows up a minute later, bustling around the room and finally taking his seat at the table.

“And where have _you_ been, number Five?” Klaus asks airily.

“Busy,” Five tells him. “I could explain it to you but it’d be a waste of my breath and a waste of your brain power to try to understand.”

“Testy tonight,” Klaus observes, putting his hands up in defense. “I should warn you, we’re meant to be having a pleasant family dinner here.”

It’s not much longer before Mom comes out carrying a massive platter of carved turkey. Then Allison behind her with a bowl of mashed potatoes, and Diego with the stuffing. They all have to make another trip, and then one more, back to the kitchen before they’ve brought out everything Mom cooked. It’s like someone loaded Norman Rockwell directly into her programming. The table is full of more food than Klaus thinks he’s ever seen at one time in his life. Steam rises from every dish and the room fills with a smell so good that it makes Klaus light-headed.

By the time he gets over the sight of all the food, he realizes the dishes are being methodically passed around the table starting with Mom. That makes him the second to last in line, he realizes. It will take forever for anything to get to him. If anything is even left once Luther scoops himself out gigantic gorilla portions of everything. Klaus feels a sudden tear of panic. There’s so much food here. What if he doesn’t get any of it? 

There’s a platter of candied yams sitting close enough to him to reach with his fork. He stabs the tines in and lifts one out, brings it to his mouth. 

“Jesus, Klaus, who the fuck do you think you are?”

Klaus lowers the fork, still holding a little slab of yam, and blinks at Luther.

“We’re using our manners tonight. That means you don’t get to be a selfish prick for once in your life.”

“I’m. I’m hungry.” Klaus’ head feels thick. The room is starting to swim. Can’t Luther let him eat yams in peace?

“We haven’t all been served yet. You have to wait.”

Klaus looks around the table. Everyone is watching them. It’s true that no one else is eating yet. He makes eye contact with Mom and she just looks so sad, so disappointed, as she looks back at him that Klaus puts his fork down on his plate.

The serving dishes finally begin to make their way around to him. There’s not much left in them but Klaus finds them heavy in his hands, finds it difficult to manipulate the serving utensils as he adds food to his plate. Vanya’s lucky Klaus loves her so much because it takes everything in him to resist emptying each bowl or platter. By the time he’s handed her the last dish he feels tired. Bone-deep exhausted, really. 

His plate is full, sitting right there in front of him. Vanya’s is full now too. Around the table, everyone begins to eat. Klaus doesn’t really feel hungry anymore. It would take so much work to pick up the fork. Even more work to pick up the knife. Cutting the turkey up is just out of the question. Now Luther’s spitting some more snide remarks at him, accusing him of acting like a baby. Telling him to get over himself and eat. But Klaus thinks he’d rather just lie down and take a nap. He stands up from the table and falls to the floor.

 

Klaus wakes up in his bedroom, lying on top of the covers. There’s an IV in his arm. He looks at it, feeling very confused, and then he looks past it to Diego sitting in the chair at his desk.

“I don’t think you really need that,” Diego says, nodding at the IV. “But Mom wanted to feel like she was doing everything she could for you. It really scared her, Klaus. When you passed out and when she realized how sick you were.”

“I’m not sick.”

“You’re malnourished.”

“Luther was being an asshole.”

“You obviously haven’t been eating enough for a while now. What’s going on, Klaus?”

“I have priorities, Diego. I’m a busy guy. Some days I just don’t have time to grab a sandwich.”

“By ‘priorities’ you mean an addiction.”

“Well, yeah.”

“You have time, you just don’t have any money.”

“You’re right,” Klaus says, putting on the slightest bit of a pout. “I need money. For food.”

“No way.” Diego scowls at him. “That ship has sailed.”

“But I’ll go hungry.”

“You’d be just as hungry after you spent all my money on drugs.”

“But I’d have a nice high and I wouldn’t care.”

Diego shakes his head. “Look. Dad’s dead now. If you’re hungry you should come home and eat here. Mom would love to have you around again. I’m sure Pogo would too.”

Klaus thinks it over. It’s true that there’s nothing keeping him from taking advantage of the fully stocked kitchen downstairs. “Maybe if Luther goes back to the moon,” he says.

“Fair enough.” Diego almost smirks. “I thought he was acting like a bonehead, for what it’s worth. When he made you wait to eat.”

“Thank you, Diego, I always knew you were on my side.”

“I also saved your plate from dinner. Do you want it? Mom will heat it up for you.”

Klaus smiles. “That sounds wonderful.”


End file.
